Secretarial Ergonomics

Even though the chair may not look like much, it has the ability to affect your comfort level, productivity and long-term health. Therefore, time and care should be taken when choosing a chair for the home or for the office.

The first thing that must be considered when choosing a proper chair is the fact that people come in all different shapes and sizes.  A person’s overall height and where the height is centralized (ie. In the legs or in the waist) will determine the height that the chair should be.  For employers, it is unrealistic to think that employees will remain with a company forever, so they may purchase a chair that is height adjustable.  However, if you are an office worker, you can take advantage of the options and adjust your chair to your preference. Keep in mind, though, the height of the chair should allow the knees to be level with or slightly lower than the hips.  Footstools can be used on and off throughout the day to change position of the low back and avoid back strains.  But in the case of severe osteo-degenerative arthritis, you should use a footstool to place the knees higher than the hips while working.

The next thing that must be analyzed is your varied work tasks.  It is important to consider whether your work involves sitting at a computer terminal, typing, writing at a desk, answering the phone, reading documents, etc. and/or a combination of these tasks.  There is no point in purchasing a top of the line chair with an excellent back support if you sit perched forward at your desk and never experiences the benefit of sitting back against this support.

Most people who work at home or in offices are required to do more than one task throughout the day.  It is extremely important, therefore, that their chair offers good lumbar or low back support, and that the back support can be adjusted to move forward with the individual when they lean forward to their work surface.  The mechanism that allows this adjustment to be made has to be easy to operate so that the individual will use the chair features.  Another alternative is to bring the work surface closer. You can do this by using a desk slope so that minimal forward movement is required.

Another important consideration when choosing a seating system that most people tend to neglect is arm support.  Not only do our backs need to be protected from work strain but so do our arms.  A chair should always have armrests to give an individual the opportunity to relieve the strain through their shoulders.  Some chairs have adjustable and removable armrests (a nice option).  For individuals who spend the majority of their day typing at a computer terminal, it is important to support the wrists by using supports such as the “ergo-arm”, which attaches to the computer desk or the “wrist pro”, which slips under the computer keyboard.  Common problems such as tennis elbow and carpal tunnel syndrome can be avoided by using these types of supports.